Contents 7 -- Preface 11 -- Note 13 -- Introduction 15 -- Religion and Art 16 -- Art and Popular Culture 18 -- Popular Culture and Religion 20 -- For a Weberian Approach 21 -- Contents 23 -- Note an Methodology 26 -- CHAPTER 1. Religion and Spirituality: From Modernity to Postmodernity 27 -- lntroduction 27 -- Modernity and Postmodernity 29 -- Keeping Secularisation at Bay 31 -- The Secularist Break or the Tertium Quid 33 -- Religion and Spirituality 35 -- Conclusion 39 -- CHAPTER 2. Consumer Religions 41 -- lntroduction 41 -- Consumption 42 -- Religion and Consumption 45 -- Hyper-Consumer Religions 49 -- Cultural Appropriation of Indigenous Culture 52 -- Cultural Consumption of History 55 -- CHAPTER 3. Subjective Myths 57 -- Introduction 57 -- Consumption of Popular Culture 57 -- Cultural Consumption, Lipovetsky, and the Postmodern Individual 64 -- Subjective Myths and Meta-Consumption 67 -- CHAPTER 4. Hyper-Real Religion 71 -- Introduction 71 -- The Jedi Religion 72 -- Baudrillard and Hyper-Reality 77 -- Hyper-Real Religion in the Risk Society 79 -- CHAPTER 5. New Forms of Religious Identification Carried by Popular Culture 85 -- Introduction 85 -- A World of Multiple Possibilities 87 -- The Human Potential Ethic and Alternative Spiritualities 88 -- Superheroes in Comics 90 -- Baby Boomers and Generation X 92 -- The Human Potential Ethic and Superheroes in Affinity: Three Arguments 94 -- The Human Potential Ethic and Superheroes: Two Comments 97 -- The Human Potential Ethic and Jediism 98 -- Oprah and Spiritual Empowerment 101 -- A Hyper-Real Re-Enchantment 103 -- CHAPTER 6. Esoteric Knowledge(s) and Popular Culture 105 -- Introduction 105 -- Esotericism 107 -- Simmel and Secrecy 111 -- Seeking a Hyper-Real "Secret Knowledge" 116 -- CHAPTER 7. The Logic of Late Capitalism and the Stasis of Religion 121 -- Introduction 121.

Jameson' s Late Capitalism 122 -- Perennism as Part of the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism9 125 -- The Stasis of Culture? The Stasis of Religion 128 -- CHAPTER 8. Popular Culture and Hypo-Consumer Religious Groups 135 -- Introduction 135 -- Fighting Psychological Pressure in Postmodern Culture 137 -- Monotheistic Fundamentalism(s) 138 -- Resistance to Popular Culture 140 -- Re-Evaluation of Popular Culture 149 -- Re-Appropriation of Popular Culture 151 -- Meta-Resistance to Popular Culture 154 -- Conclusion 155 -- CHAPTER 9. Conclusion 157 -- Postscript 161 -- References 163.